When Adobe launched its subscription-only Creative Cloud software suite a year ago, one of the criticisms leveled against the service was that it took choice out of the hands of users. Although you could choose which individual apps from the suite you wanted to install, you couldn't opt to use an earlier version than the one Adobe supplied in the suite.

If you had a preference for, say, the Creative Suite 6 version of an app over the Creative Cloud version because your machine wasn't up to the system requirements of the newer release, you preferred the earlier variant of a feature, or you'd stumbled on a bug in the current Creative Cloud version that prevented you from using it, you were out of luck. Unless you already owned the earlier release, there was no way to roll back.

That looks set to change though, courtesy of an update to the Creative Cloud desktop app v1.6.0.393, released earlier this week. That's great news for Creative Cloud users, and it removes one more obstacle preventing those who're not yet part of Creative Cloud from upgrading.

Arguably, the most important obstacle remains -- the fact that if you only needed a few Suite apps, or didn't need regular updates to new versions, Creative Cloud can potentially be a lot more expensive than the apps it replaced. By the same token, though, for the Suite's most avid users who routinely upgraded after every release, it represents a clear savings over the old model. But be that as it may, Adobe clearly won't be backing down any time soon, so you can either live with the current version, find an alternative, or bite the bullet.

For those who've taken the latter path, the ability to roll back to earlier software could be a big deal -- and it's worth noting that the apps install in parallel with their newer CC variants, so you can switch back and forth at will. At the current time, you can only opt to roll back to a Creative Suite 6 version. The Adobe CC desktop app update also brings a number of bug fixes, an improved sign-in process, and improved performance during large sync operations.